Saluting women in struggle
THIS Sunday 8 March marks International Women's Day and
on this 200th anniversary of the 1798 Rebellion, the
heroic efforts of Irish women such as Betsy Gray, Mary
Anne McCracken, Anne Devlin and their comrades, will be
saluted.
Two centuries on, Irish women, Catholic, Protestant and
Dissenter, have continued to swell the ranks of those
movements fighting for self-determination and struggled
for equality through trade unions and the autonomous
women's movement.
Most especially, republican women have propelled the
fight for national self-determination forward at key
points in the struggle.
Women have been to the fore over the past three decades
in the struggles for civil rights, the campaign by the
prisoners for political status, and the campaign for
British withdrawal from its military occupation of the
Six Counties.
On this 10th anniversary of the shootings of three
unarmed IRA Volunteers by the SAS in Gibraltar we
should especially remember one of the Gibraltar 3,
Mairead Farrell, who played such a heroic role with
other women prisoners in Armagh Jail in the early
1980s.
The creation and pursuit of the republican peace
strategy centrally involves women members and
supporters.
Republican women are working for the peace process not
only because they are citizens who want to determine
their own future, but because they are determined to
reach their goal of a society which empowers its women
citizens with equality and liberty.
The political partition of this island continues to be
a major impediment to the advance of democracy and
women's rights. Our comrades in Maghaberry Prison, two
of whom are serving life sentences, continue to be
denied equality in prison facilities, suffer extensive
periods of lock-up and are still strip-searched. These
women, as with all political prisoners, should be set
free.
Vote Sinn Féin
VOTERS in Dublin North and Limerick East have an
opportunity next Wednesday to vote for political change
in Ireland.
Sinn Féin goes before the electorate in both
constituencies on a platform of real social, economic
and political change.
The benefits of a vibrant Irish economy have not been
savoured by the wider population. What has instead
happened is that the division of wealth between the
rich and the poor has increased.
Both constituencies stand as examples of this growing
division of wealth in Ireland: in Limerick East there
are sprawling housing estates with unemployment as high
as 70% and in Dublin North workers at Ryanair are
struggling for basic trade union rights against one of
the wealthiest companies in the country.
Sinn Féin has consistently supported and played an
active part in all campaigns to eliminate poverty and
to expose inequality and injustice.
Both Sinn Féin candidates - Paul Donnelly and Jenny
Shapland - have a strong background as community
activists and have worked along with others to tackle
unemployment, environmental problems and drugs abuse in
their respective constituencies.
Importantly ,the by-election gives voters in both
constituencies the opportunity to endorse the Irish
peace process by voting Sinn Féin.
A vote for Sinn Féin is both a vote for community
empowerment and a vote for an alternative to the
corruption that plighted the political scene in Ireland
for too long.
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/harp.gif)